Contents

Early
life

Orlando Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, England. His mother, Sonia Constance Josephine
(née Copeland), was born in the
British section of Kolkata,
India, the daughter of Betty
Constance Josephine Walker and Francis John Copeland, who was a
physician and surgeon. Through her, Bloom is a cousin of
photographer Sebastian Copeland.[4] Bloom's
maternal grandmother's family lived in Tasmania, Australia and India, and were of English descent, some of them having
originally come from Kent.[1][5]
During his childhood, Bloom was told that his father was his
mother's husband, South African-born Jewish anti-Apartheid novelist Harry Saul Bloom; but
when he was thirteen (nine years after Harry's death), Bloom's
mother revealed to him that his biological father was actually
Colin Stone, his mother's partner and family friend.[6]
Stone, the principal of the Concorde International language
school,[7]
was made Orlando Bloom's legal guardian after Harry Bloom's
death.[6]
Bloom, who is named after the 16th century composer Orlando
Gibbons,[1]
has one sister, Samantha Bloom, who was born in 1975.

Career

Bloom's first appearance on the screen was as a rent boy in the
1997 film Wilde - he had a small part. Two days
after graduating from Guildhall in 1999,[11]
he was cast in his first major role, playing Legolas in The Lord of the
Rings (2001–2003).[10]
He had originally auditioned for the part of Faramir, who doesn't appear until the second
movie but the director, Peter Jackson, cast him as Legolas instead.
While shooting a scene, he broke a rib after falling off a horse,
but eventually recovered and continued shooting.[12]
At the same time, Bloom also played a brief role in the war film Black
Hawk Down as PFC. Todd Blackburn. The success of both The Lord of the Rings
film trilogy and Black Hawk Down transformed
Bloom from an unknown actor into one of world's best-known
celebrities. In 2002, he was chosen as one of the Teen
People "25 Hottest Stars Under 25" and was named People's hottest Hollywood
bachelor in the magazine's 2004 list.[10]
All members of the cast of the Rings films were nominated
for Best Ensemble Acting at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for
three years in a row, finally winning in 2003 for the third film,
The Return of the King. Bloom has also won other awards,
including European Film Awards, Hollywood
Festival Award, Empire
Awards and Teen Choice Awards, and has been
nominated for many others. Most of Bloom's box office successes
have been as part of an ensemble cast.[3]

Bloom at the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
London premiere, July 2006

Bloom next starred opposite Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp in
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,
which was a blockbuster hit during the summer of 2003. After the
success of Pirates, Bloom next took to the screen as
Paris, the man who effectively started the Trojan War, in the 2004 Spring blockbuster,
Troy
opposite Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Peter O'Toole. He
subsequently played the lead roles in Kingdom of Heaven and
Elizabethtown (both 2005). In
2006, Bloom starred in sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead
Man's Chest and in the independently made Haven, of which
he was also executive producer. In the same year he was one of the
guest stars in the sitcom Extras, in
which he portrayed an exaggeratedly arrogant, narcissistic version of himself who had a
great loathing for Johnny Depp (his co-star in Pirates of
the Caribbean); Bloom pushed for Extras to go further
by making his part unlikeable, and contributed to the gag about him
admiring Depp out of sheer jealously, that Depp was far more
talented than he was, not to mention rated higher than him on the
'top hottest' charts.[13] Also
in 2006, Bloom was the most searched male on Google News.[6]
As of May 2007, Bloom has appeared in four of the top 15 highest
grossing films of all time.[11]

Bloom's most recent film role is in Pirates of the
Caribbean: At World's End, released on 24 May 2007. Bloom, who
had intended to become a stage actor after graduating from the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, had stated that he would to
like to leave films for a time and instead appear in stage
roles,[10]
and is "avidly looking for the right sort of material that [he] can
do something with"[14]
and go "back to basics".[15]
During the summer of 2007,he appeared in a London revival of In
Celebration, a play by David Storey.[15][16]
His character was one of three brothers returning home for their
parents' 40th wedding anniversary.[17]
On 24 August 2007, he made his first ever TV commercial appearance
on late-night Japanese TV, promoting the Uno brand of cosmetics
maker Shiseido. A "one night only", 2-minute version of the Sci-Fi
themed commercial kicked off the product's marketing campaign.[18]
Orlando Bloom and Kanye West are rumoured to be starring in the
2010 remake of "Jesus Christ: Superstar". He was also one of the
four main actors voted for on Stephenie Meyer's website to portray Edward Cullen in
the 2008 movie Twilight. However, he was considered too
old to realistically play the part. This was also said of Henry Cavill who was
Meyer's first choice. In 2008 he was slimed at the Kid's Choice Awards, what Jack Black
called, "The biggest slime in history!" In 2008 he signed on to
play a small role in the British film An Education[19]
but dropped out to take the lead in Johnny To's film Red
Circle.[20] Also
in 2009, he was one of many stars to appear in New York,
I Love You, which contained twelve short films in one.

Personal
life

Bloom in 2008

Bloom has said that he tries "not to exclude [himself] from real
life as much as possible".[6]
He is a Manchester United fan and lives in London.[21]
During filming in Morocco
for Kingdom of Heaven, Bloom
rescued and adopted a dog, Sidi (a black Saluki mix with a white mark on his chest).[22]
Bloom is a practising Buddhist.[11]
In 2004, he became a full member of Soka Gakkai International, a lay Buddhist
association affiliated with the teachings of Nichiren.[23][24] Bloom
has also been a part of Global Green, an environmental
company, since the early 2000s.[3]
As part of his environmental involvement, he has renovated his London home to use solar
panels, incorporate recycled materials, and utilize energy
efficient lightbulbs.[3][6]
Bloom has been approached by UNICEF to act as an international
ambassador.[3]
Bloom met American actress Kate Bosworth outside a coffee shop in
2002, where he was introduced to her by a mutual friend. He met her
again at the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers later that year. The two had an "on-and-off
relationship"[6]
from 2002 until splitting up in September 2006.[25][26]

Bloom has sustained several injuries: he broke his left arm and
cracked his skull three times, broke his nose while playing rugby union, broke his
right leg skiing in Switzerland, broke his left leg in a
motorbike crash, broke his right wrist while snowboarding.[11]
He also broke his back when he slipped trying to reach a roof
terrace of a friend's house and fell three floors.[28]

On 13 July 2009, at approximately 3:00a.m., four hooded
teenagers broke into the Hollywood Hills home of Orlando Bloom
and stole $3,000,000 worth of possessions. The burglars, dubbed the
“bling ring”, have targeted the homes of young celebrities. Two of
the four have been arrested and are awaiting trial. Most of Bloom’s
stolen items have been retrieved.[32]

On 12 October 2009 Bloom was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He has been involved
in the organisation since 2007 and has visited schools and villages
in Nepal in support of
sanitation and education progammes.[33]

Sourced

Unsourced

People come into your life and people leave it... you just have
to trust that life has a road mapped out for you.

If life isn't about human beings and living in harmony, then I
don't know what it's about.

I was fine with taking my top off but I wouldn't walk around
starkers. I'm not an exhibitionist!

On filming the movie Calcium Kid

Am I really, oh great! They just want to keep that competition
going between the two films don't they. But I don't think you can
really compare the two. It will be interesting to see how that pans
out. I'm quite excited now that you mention it.

on being nominated for the 2001 Empire Awards 'Best Debut'
against Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson from
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

I'd love to be a sculptor. I studied photography, sculpture and
theatre for my A-levels and at that age I was torn as I got better
results for the others than for theatre studies. But ultimately
acting was what I always wanted to do. It was my calling in
life.

If life isnt about humanity, then tell me what it's about,
because I'd love to know. Money and power aren't what life is
about, it can't be.

Women should be treated with respect. Growing up around them
all my life, I've learned that important factor.

Whatever happens in life is fine - just trust in that.

Elves are cool, man.

It's like a lightsaber, on fire.

I feel really privileged to be an actor, to be paid to do
something I love.

I'm always amazed at anyone's interest in what I have to
say.

Although it is a fantasy film, it’s as real as it can be. You
have to imagine that an audience will buy their ticket to a cinema
and get on a first-class flight and journey to Middle Earth.

Elves are like trees, grounded and focused from the trunk down
but graceful and agile on top.

When you start falling for somebody and you can't stop thinking
about when you're going to see them again, I love that. Women are
beautiful. They deserve to be cherished and respected.

Maybe our generation is more about sex, but it feels like
romance is dying out.

Viggo will go on about Elves and how they're always doing their
nails and brushing their long, blonde hair, and being all prissy.
And I just say: Well, at least I'm going to live forever! Got that?
LIVE FOREVER!

In 1993, he moved to London to improve his career, doing bit parts in TV series like Casualty. Then he played some theatres like The Seagull, Twelfth Night, and Trojan Women. This is a role that he received some days before graduating the drama school in London.